The Brewton City Council on March 10 approved a site-assessment project agreement under the State of Alabama SEEDS Act grant program that will fund environmental and industrial-site analyses for the city.

The agreement awards $54,961.8, and the city will contribute a matching amount described in the meeting as "50¢ of each of those dollars," City staff member Jess Nicholas said. Councilor Barton moved approval; Councilor Brown seconded, and the resolution (25-0310-1) was approved unanimously.

The vote was the most substantive policy action of the brief meeting. The SEEDS grant is designed to help cities and counties with industrial-site analysis, evaluation, and acquisition and development, Nicholas said, and the funds will pay for surveys and other assessment work the city already undertakes for industrial property.

Nicholas summarized related economic-development activity, including a potential project by a trucking firm identified in the meeting as Triple A Cooper Transportation. Nicholas said the company is planning a facility near the chip mill on Highway 31 that is expected to create about 12 to 20 jobs and that the projected annual payroll for those positions was stated in the meeting as $5,560,000. He said the Escambia County Commission recently approved a sales- and use-tax abatement for that project and that the city has notified the company of its approvals.

Nicholas also described early-stage efforts to recruit a grocery store, saying consultant Merrill Stewart is helping prepare a market pitch and a roadmap of potential incentives. "That's very early on in the process, and we don't have anybody to identify yet as the grocery store," he said during the meeting.

Councilors asked no substantive follow-up questions during the SEEDS discussion. City staff did not provide a single-line total cost that combines the state award and the city's match; staff said at the meeting the total amount "was not calculated." The transcript also contains an unclear estimate that the combined amount could be "about ... 72,000," but staff did not present a final total at the meeting.

What happens next: staff will execute the site-assessment agreement and proceed with the assessment work described in the grant application. The council did not place any additional conditions on approval during the meeting.